Ebola in Nigeria: Payback for impunity

August 7, 2014 : Greg Odogwu

Greg Odogwu

Two days ago, as I read the news that the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Jide Idris, announced that Lagos State, then, had eight suspected cases of Ebola, my heart was filled with sadness. I felt profoundly depressed not just because the dreaded Ebola Virus Disease had found its way into my dear country; but singularly because this invasion would have been prevented if the appropriate health authorities were proactive enough, as is required in such a regional epidemic. After a deep thought, I could not help but become troubled by the plausible reality that Nigeria might just be paying for the ingrained culture of impunity found in all aspects of the polity.

If it were in a country where public officers are held responsible for their mistakes while serving the people, the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, would now have either resigned or be explaining to Nigerians why he did not take effective measures to prevent the incursion of virus into our shores. The reason is simple. Knowing that the epidemic broke in West Africa, and that Nigeria is the biggest country in the region with the obvious high rate of border intercourse, the government would have adequately prepared to intercept potential Ebola cases right at the borders, especially at the airports.

In that way, when the first victim, the Liberian national, Patrick Sawyer, was about to enter our borders via the Lagos airport, he would not have been taken into the city because there would be a quarantine facility right there at the airport. But sadly, the government was waiting for us to have an Ebola case before instituting the necessary measures to prevent it at the borders. Talk about medicine after death!

Some people might argue that putting up such quarantine facilities at the airports at a time when the disease had not been reported in our nation was some sort of extreme measure; but we must realise that for a disease that does not have any cure at the moment, there is no measure too strident or act too bizarre to prepare for imponderables.

For instance, Kenya is not a West African country, and so faced a lesser risk of having the disease enter its borders as compared to Nigeria; but the country was already preparing for a possible incursion several months ago. When I travelled to Nairobi, the Kenya capital, in the second week of June, I and another Nigerian on the flight were isolated from other immigrants at the Jomo Kenyatta Airport and given Ebola questionnaires to fill. It was not done because we had symptoms, but simply because we were coming in from a risk zone. The health officer that gave us the document was intently watching us as we filled out the form which sought to know every aspect of our present health status in consonance with the possible symptoms of Ebola. Although we were not quarantined, I was very aware of the intent visual scrutiny from the officer. My fellow Nigerian colleague said, “These people are serious o!”

Yes, they were dead serious, because Ebola is a dead serious epidemic, and no public officer entrusted with the job of safeguarding the health of his or her compatriots should neglect the minutest detail of precaution.

But ours is a country where people in leadership positions are not held answerable for their abdication of duty, or failure to act in the expected manner. Surely, it is not hard for one to realise that it is impunity that breeds corruption. When one public officer sees that another corrupt officer goes scot-free after committing an offence, that public officer is emboldened to commit even more crimes. In that way, the system gets worse by the day because leaders who are supposed to be custodians of our national patrimony keep allowing it to disintegrate without any form of accountability.

Last week Thursday’s The PUNCH’s editorial was poignant in stating that our government failed in addressing the Ebola epidemic. It said in part, “But we saw it coming. In our April 17, 2014 editorial, we rightly warned, ‘There is the need for the presence of medical experts at seaports and airports to control the influx of people into the country, especially people from countries where the (Ebola) infection has been reported.’ Unfortunately, as this case showed, our health authorities failed to make a good contingency plan and effective surveillance at entry points…. The death of the Liberian-American has suddenly sparked a series of containment activities in Nigeria. But given the proven dictum in medical practice that prevention is better than cure, some of these actions should have been taken before now.”

I am very convinced that the Minister of Health would have speedily done the needful as advised by The PUNCH and other commentators like my humble self (writing on the same April 17 with the title, ‘Climate Change, Ebola and Lassa fever’) if our country is not prostrate with that cancerous disease: IMPUNITY. Of course, the health minister would not be afraid of any repercussions should he neglect his duties. He would never for one night lose sleep for fear of what would happen to his career if he did not think far and act fast. No, he would not; because no other minister had ever been punished for such a dereliction of duty. Need proof? Ask the Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, after unemployed youths were trampled to their deaths as a result of official carelessness right under his watch.

But it is not so in saner climes. Earlier in the year, when a ferry disaster killed more than 200 people in South Korea, the country’s Prime Minister promptly resigned in apology for the government’s handling of the accident. In his resignation speech, the sober-looking public servant, said, “As I saw grieving families suffering with the pain of losing their loved ones and the sadness and resentment of the public, I thought I should take all responsibility as prime minister. There have been so many varieties of irregularities that have continued in every corner of our society and practices that have gone wrong. I hope these deep-rooted evils get corrected this time and this kind of accident never happens again.”

In Nigeria today, we must face the truth that many things have gone wrong in our socio-political system, and only our facing reality and making conscious efforts to make amends for a better tomorrow are what matter at the moment. Ebola will come and go, of course, and Nigeria will survive. But we must always remember that any individual leader’s mistake will surely become our collective nightmare, because according to that cheeky – but eternally true – saying “Payback’s a bitch!”

UNEP’s report on Ogoniland, three years after.

Last Monday, August 4, marked three years since a detailed report by the United Nations Environmental Programme was published and submitted to the Presidency urgently specifying the imperative of an immediate cleanup of the polluted Ogoni environment. Since then, little has been done to protect the environment surrounding the lands of the Ogoni people in the Niger Delta, who are faced with untold dangers as a result of the very high presence of hydrocarbons and carcinogens in their land and water. Sadly, the President hails from the region. Sure, this speaks volumes.

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Thanks Greg for this contribution in view of this Ebola hullabaloo, am suprise about this hype b our government having failed primarily on their jobs to provide good governance. I have an opinion that you can never cheat nature. Nigeria is well endowed with resources not for fun but to take care of the people like proper human beings, to build and provide sustainable, accessible basic infrastructure for human beings living in Nigeria, come up with policies that will improve lives, job opportunities, qualitative medicare.
Unfortunately our leaders failed in this, they are still living in the past like feudal Lords, medieval princes, ,glutton and kleptomaniac.
Because of their failure to use God given to optimise service to humanity which I consider the best work of live, nature has come to balance itself.
My recommendations:
1.Mass education on protection against this epidemic called Ebola
2. Free distribution of hand wash liquid and sanitisers
3.Coroner laws should passed in all states of federation
4.Burying if dead human bodies should be stopped immediately and those ones already bried should be exhumed
5.rural urban migration should be discouraged.government must provide amenities and other basics in rural communities for this to make sense.
I consider and pray that our health officers should rise to this health challenges and win this battle . All hands must be on deck.This is a clarion call to health practitioners, researchers and government to declare a state of emergency in this sector. This must not be another boko haram.
I BELIEVE WE CAN WIN TOGETHER

Funto Ayenakin

I was hoping someone would at least write about this..am glad you did.Till now the Minister of Health has not been to Lagos,all he does is stay in abuja and hope someone is doing something in Lagos..it is obvious in their conflicting news reports e.g Mr Sawyer died a night before he admitted it,The matron died a day before he admitted it.This is not some kind of it doesnt concern me”scheme as we treat every other issue.Uganda has long instituted Medical Checks at their borders,long.WHO kept shouting it,and we saw it coming.Just one Index in Patrick sawyer and 7 people are positive.And you can be sure when politicians tell you 7 people are involved there might as well be 70.

trouble

Pls let us forget about all these minister for this or that. They are placed there to fill their pockets & make returns to their sponsors.
How come all our so called leaders & representatives who are always spending scarce resources jetting all over the world in 1st class not have reasoned that nigeria is at great risk of the ebola virus?.
In their usual low reasoning capacity they figured they are immuned or can afford to fly to the developed countrys for treatment.
When these countrys start banning flights from west african regions ourleaders will start singing new songs.
Bunch of heartless wicked people.

Almata

My big question is are medical paper not check at the point of stampping papers for people coming into Nigeria. What is Nigeria High Commission in Liberia diong? Why Patrick Sawyer was given clearance to travel into Nigeria.Nigerian Officials at the embassey in Laberia should investigated to ravel the game behind Sawyer’s paper that gave him permit to come into Nigeria.

Eastern man

i personally wonder what nd how this man gets his clearance through our so called embassey, what is these people wrk over there i chear the view that the high commissoner shld come nd explian to nigerians how they allow this man to enter our country

ND

My brother just forget Nigerian embassy overseas they could even issue a visa to a confirmed ebola patient provided their financial demand is met.Most visa are issued by proxy or through an agent as in the case of Nigerian embassy the hague.

Nadeco

I think the man is working with ECOWAS, so, he may have diplomatic paper, another impunity that allows man with full blown ebola enter Nigeria and distribute the virus to many people. Only God knows the number of infected Nigerians. Those who boarded the same plane with him might have contacted it. Many of them have been with the family members, eating and sleeping together. All the family members have been going to schools, markets, churches, mosques and other gatherings sharing items with innocents and give them the virus free of charge. Who knows the number of people who already contacted the virus by sharing the same molue, keke napep, shuttles, buses, toilets etc with all these people? I am not sure some of the people who attended one function or the other in Lagos and travelled back to many states in Nigeria did not go with the virus to propagate it in their states. Hope Nigeria has not brought in what will destroy many because we are too careless in this country and human life means almost nothing to us. We are always quick to call God for intervention, do we really do what we should do?

archkemdy ogodo

No they will only need an Obama placard or a #BBOG or a manala visit to act except that its all about politics. This same foes T boko haram issues.

lawal

What is the worth of life in Nigerian? That nurse died because somebody somewhere did not do his job. Before sawyer came in, over 500 has died in Liberia . I expected a serious government that value the citizen to have taken a pro active step. They take so much from us but give us so little. Chibok girls incident should have been avoided if we value life. Putting over 200 girls in a school without security knowing what happened in fgc yobe where over 50 students were slaughter .

chrisolomukoro

There is no doubt that this ebola virus has exposed our inefficiency and impunity.
This has been my concern all this while because of the way we do things in this country.
I was told of a nurse working in the hospital where the American-Liberian died, that after they collected their blood sample two weeks ago, they were told to go home without any further information from the authority till date.
One thing I know that we cannot avoid is: this country will reap whatever she has sown.
Let those in positions of authority not think that they will escape God’s judgement when it comes. Sad but true, their judgement will be more condemnable.

francisn

Our leaders are quick to rush to summits in foreign land leaving their mammoth problems at home. Sometimes I wonder the usefulness of these summits in Washington, Beijing, Paris? Sometimes I wonder how our leaders actual use the outcomes of these world-shaking summits. West Africa is boiling with the Ebola public health emergency that has so far claimed over 900 and our leaders are rather talking in Washington. An Algerian plane from Ouagadougou crashed in northern Mali the President of France canceled official travel to handled investigations himself just because 45 French people died in the crash. But Africa is always different! Our leaders in Africa please give us more sense of belonging!

afowowe C.O

This man brought ebola to Nigeria all because of its immunity. i believe an ordinary man woud not be allowed such privilege. Nigeria, i hail thee!

Columnists

"Mr Orubebe, you are former minister of the Federal Republic, you are a statesman in your own right and you must be careful about what you say and about the allegations or accusations that you make and certainly you must be careful about your public conducts."

INEC's Chairman, Attairu Jega cautioning Orubebe over his conduct during the release of the Presidential election results.